The present invention relates generally to the field of alarm clocks, and more particularly, to an alarm clock with a universal infrared remote home device controller.
Alarm clocks have been used for a long time to awaken sleepers, in particular to help them begin their work days. Alarm clocks coupled with radio functions have been used to awaken people more gently, using music from a favorite radio station. However, the music being played by the radio station may be sleep-inducing, and thus the alarm function may be frustrated. The snooze function may aid in alleviating the problem of waking the sleeper, but sound sleepers may inactive both the clock alarm and the snooze alarm, resulting in the sleeper""s oversleeping.
Where the individual has home entertainment devices that he wishes to enjoy until a predetermined bedtime, he would find it beneficial to have a preset time for inactivation of the selected home entertainment device or devices so that he could sleep more comfortably during his normal sleeping time. Though the alarm clock serves as a wake-up assistant for most people, such a device should provide further capabilities for remote home entertainment device management to facilitate everyday living. Thus, there is a need for an alarm clock that may conveniently provide, in addition to alarm clock functions, infrared remote home device management for a plurality of home devices, including entertainment devices.
The present invention provides an alarm clock remote control system that includes alarm clock circuitry with a microprocessor that is coupled to the alarm clock circuitry, the remote IR diode driving circuitry, an internal buzzer, an alarm, a display, and a plurality of input ports and output ports, and is used for providing central control. The system uses a display for displaying, as selected, a current time or an alarm time. A speaker that is coupled to the microprocessor is also coupled to an AM/FM radio unit, an internal buzzer, and the alarm, and outputs selected audio. An AM/FM radio tuner may be used to tune a radio to a particular station so that it may be activated at a chosen time. Clock setup circuitry, alarm setup and activation circuitry are coupled to the microprocessor and are used for setting the clock, setting the alarm, and activating at least one remote device.
A programmable universal infrared remote device control is coupled to the alarm clock circuitry and may be used for remote programming of at least one remote device. The remote device control includes activation circuitry for activating the at least one remote device. Typically, the display is a light emitting diode or an LCD display. The remote devices activated may be any of a plurality of remote devices that are controllable by the alarm clock remote control system, such as a television, a video cassette recorder, an electronic device tuner, a compact disk player, a video compact disk player, a digital video/versatile disk player, and/or a video cassette recorder. In one embodiment, a remote device setup mode is activated/powered up by pressing the remote power and remote sleep/off buttons simultaneously. A channel increment button, a channel decrement button, a volume increment button and a volume decrement button may be used to provide a predetermined four part code entry that identifies a selected remote device. The selected audio to be output from the speaker may be a ringing alarm, a buzzer output, and/or output of the AM/FM radio unit.
The present invention may also be described as a remote control system that includes an alarm clock system wherein the alarm clock system has a microprocessor, coupled to the alarm clock circuitry, the remote IR diode driving circuitry, an internal buzzer, an alarm, a display, and a plurality of input ports and output ports, for providing central control, the display, coupled to the microprocessor, for displaying at least one of a current time and an alarm time; a speaker, coupled to the microprocessor, the AM/FM radio unit, the internal buzzer, and the alarm, for outputting selected audio, an AM/FM radio tuner, clock setup circuitry, alarm setup and activation circuitry coupled to the microprocessor for setting the clock, setting the alarm, and activating at least one remote device; and a programmable universal infrared remote device control, coupled to the alarm clock circuitry, for remote programming at least one remote device, and having activation circuitry for activating the at least one remote device.
The display for the remote control system is generally a light emitting diode or an LCD display, and the remote device may be any of a plurality of remote devices controllable by the remote control system such as a television, a video cassette recorder, an electronic device tuner, a compact disk player, a video compact disk player, a digital video/versatile disk player, and/or a video cassette recorder. In one embodiment, the remote device setup mode is activated/powered up by pressing the remote power and remote sleep/off buttons simultaneously. A channel increment button, a channel decrement button, a volume increment button and a volume decrement button may be used to provide a predetermined four part code entry that identifies a selected remote device. The selected audio may be a ringing alarm, a buzzer output, or output of the AM/FM radio unit.
In one embodiment, the invention includes a remote control alarm system with a microprocessor/microcontroller, coupled to alarm activation circuitry, a remote controller alarm triggering unit, an alarm, a display, and a plurality of input ports and output ports, for providing central control. The display is coupled to the microprocessor/microcontroller and is used for displaying at least one of a current time and an alarm time. The speaker is coupled to the microprocessor/microcontroller and used for outputting selected audio. The microprocessor/microcontroller, and alarm setup and activation circuitry are coupled to the remote controller alarm triggering unit for setting the alarm, and activating at least one remote device of a plurality of remote devices, wherein, the microprocessor/microcontroller signals the remote controller alarm triggering unit to trigger activation of one of the plurality of remote devices.